Comments on “A Bio-Cultural-Historical Approach to the Study of Development (2016)”

Summary

Michael Cole (University of California, San Diego) and Martin Packer (University of Andes, Bogota) posted a draft of their contribution to volume 6 of Handbook of Advances in Culture and Psychology on academia.com. The title of their essay is “A Bio-Cultural Historical Approach to the Study of Development”. Cole and Packer point to an emerging consensus among cultural-developmental scientists.This work summarizes, comments on, and re-articulates Cole and Packer’s unfolding ideas. The category-based nested form serves as a template for re-displaying their points in a semiotic framework. The results are a bit strange, but that should not deter anyone, because the ‘the topic of culture and human ontogeny’ informs us about who we are.

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Comments on “A Bio-Cultural-Historical Approach to the Study of Development (2016)” - Razie Mah

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Introduction

0001 Michael Cole (University of California, San Diego) and Martin Packer (University of Andes, Bogota) posted a draft of their contribution to volume 6 of Handbook of Advances in Culture and Psychology on academia.com. I suppose they sought comments before going to press. However, the timeline is unclear. The post probably occurred in spring of 2015. These comments are written in the fall of 2015.

0002 Cole and Packer point to an emerging consensus among cultural-developmental scientists. Disparate studies on the relations between culture and ontogeny (human development) should congeal into a paradigmatically coherent understanding. The authors call this expectation a meta-theory.

This meta-theory should serve as a springboard for further research.

What Is Meta-Theory?

0003 How does meta-theory differ from theory?

Hmmm… Let me start with the idea that a theory is a sensible explanation of objective observations of subjective phenomena.

0004 A theory looks at signs that can be sensed (objects) and posits an account of the phenomena itself (subjects). The subjects are typically a thing or a state of things. The object is typically a sign of a thing or a state of things.

Theory explains the coherence of object and subject.

Theory answers the question: How can objects (signs) be true to their subject (phenomena)?

Note how both items are actual and continguous. The realm of actuality belongs to the category of secondness. Secondness has two elements that are somehow connected with one another. Smoke and fire are contiguous.